Exhausted by the epidemic of crime and violence across Trinidad and Tobago, citizens are still finding humour in the latest brazen crime, the attempt by five men in Tobago who stole an excavator and used it to tear into an automated teller machine in Plymouth overnight.

The crime, seemingly lifted from the playbook of similar ATM heists in Europe, appeared to be going well at first, with the operator of the backhoe ripping away the door of the ATM enclosure and extracting the machine containing the cash.

However, the suspects had not planned for the excavator stalling, rendering it useless when it came time to lift the extremely heavy machine onto the bed of a truck that pulled up during the heist.